ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATION

"Environmental migrants are persons who, for reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanentl [...]"
(International Organization for Migration)
Most of the time, the environmental migrants remain inside their own country; considering that they have to evacuate quickly, they keep hope alive to come back home as soon as possible.

| Trend from 1916
to 2016

Natural disasters are considerably increasing over the years and the cost of the damage follows the trend. The environmental disasters have a direct influence on the migration.

Natural disasters are not so natural

This phenomenon has begun more serious through the years. The number of disasters has increased both in number and in intensity, the principal cause is due to the global warming. In any case it generates always more damage and forced migration. IDMC reports that «Significantly more people are displaced by disasters now than in the 1970s. In absolute terms, the risk of displacement is estimated to have more than doubled in four decades.»

| Global displacements

From 2008 to 2015, the global numbers of internal disaster-induced displacement are estimated at 204 million. Inside this data, searchers have individuated different kind of events: small, large and mega events. This difference depends on the number of displaced people.

| Disaster's typologies

The various natural hazards can be divided in four categories; geophysical, meteorological, hydrological and finally, climatological.
The chart represents the number of disasters by typology. (2013 to 2015)
Most of the displacements are currently caused by weather-related disasters, particularly floods and storms.
The graph shows the number of migrants (IDPs) due to the different typologies over the years 2013 to 2015.

|Displacements per country due to disasters

CAN USA MEX SLV HTI DOM PAN LCA VCT COL ECU BRA PER BOL URY CHL ARG GBR DEU CZE AUT HUN FRA ESP ITA MKD GEO LBY PSE IRQ IRN AFG SAU YEM RUS PAK IND LKA NPL BGD CHN LAO MMR THA KHM MYS IDN VNM TWN KOR PRK PHL TLS PLW JPN AUS SLB OTHERS ZAF BWA NAM MOZ ZWE ZMB MWI MDG AGO SYC KEN RWA UGA COD GAB SSD SOM ETH SDN CAF TCD CMR NER NGA BEN GHA BFA MLI MRT SEN SLE CAN USA MEX DOM HTI HND GTM NIC COL BRA BOL PRY URY ARG CHL CPV CIV NER NGA CMR TCD SDN SSD UGA COD BDI ZMB BWA ZAF LSO MOZ TZA KEN ETH SOM COM MDG DZA MAR ESP FRA HRV SWE ITA BIH GRC SRB ROU BGR LBN SYR IRN AFG RUS PAK IND LKA BGD MMR THA KHM MYS IDN VNM CHN TWN JPN PHL TLS AUS PNG SLB TON MHL OTHERS NPL CAN USA MEX BHS CUB HND GTM DOM HTI NIC SLV CRI VEN ECU COL PER BRA BOL PRY URY ARG CHL GBR IRL ESP HRV ITA ALB TUR GEO PSE IRQ IRN AFG TJK KGZ KAZ NPL PAK RUS IND LKA BGD BTN CHN MMR LAO VNM KHM MYS IDN TWN PRK JPN PHL AUS FSM KIR SLB TUV VUT OTHERS MUS MDG MOZ MWI AGO TZA BDI RWA KEN COD SOM YEM ETH SDN SSD CAF CMR NGA NER TGO GHA BFA GIN DZA

| The hidden migration

These five countries are not to be seen in the top-ranking because they have few migrants. However, it is interesting to consider them from another point of view: in 2015, their percentage of displacements on the overall country population. This graphs reveal that, in some case, small events can affect until one person out of two of the same country.

| Focus on Typhoon Haiyan

Environmental disasters affect countries and their population from different angles, all connected amongst themselves. Disasters destroy cultivations, infrastructures, buildings but also the system of a country, creating a loss of balance on the economics, the public health and on the social side. In 2013, the Typhoon Haiyan’s caused four million displacements (IDPs) in the Philippines. It induces then a wide intervention on the humanitarian level.

Funding progress by cluster

Camp coordination/management Coordination Livelihood Education Emergency Shelter Food Security Health Logistic Emergency Telecommunication Nutrition Protection Wash 4,4 / 8 Camp coordination/management 8,8 / 11 Coordination 33,3 / 115,1 Livelihood 27,6/ 44,98 Education 80,2/ 173 Emergency Shelter 1,8/ 3,3 Emergency Telecommunication 133/ 182,3 Food Security 54,1/ 80 Health 22,8/ 19,8 Logistic 14,5/ 15 Nutrition 22,4/ 43 Protection 61,5/ 81 Wash

Financial assistance from country for Typhoon Haiyan disaster (in US $)

| Conclusion

Today, almost all the evacuated people doesn’t cross the national boarders. That means that even if the problem remains inside the country, it becomes even more difficult to trace the migration flow. Moreover, the problem is being studied since 1970 but not before 2008 they had begun to gather data.
Over the years, the intensity of the natural disasters increases dramatically, creating millions of migrants worldwide. The environmental events, especially the
« mega events », let the affected country in an unstable situation. After that they need emergency plan but also quick and sustainable operations on a socio-economic matter.
Inside the vulnerable countries, this instability can increase and create conflict as well as displacements beyond the boarders. Preparation, reaction time and coordination among close nations are key factors in order to to deal with the consequences of natural disasters and to maintain the balance between populations.
All the databases come from:

D. Guha-Sapir, R. Below, Ph. Hoyois - EM-DAT: The CRED/OFDA International Disaster Database – www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.
IDMC Global Report on Internal Displacement 2016 Disaster Dataset, 11 May 2016.
FTS Financial Tracking Service - https://ftsbeta.unocha.org/ 2016.

Project by

Sara Batisti
Alicia Gonzalez
Emanuele Innocenti
Mattia Virtuani

Faculty

Paolo Ciuccarelli
Marco Fattore
Stefano Mandato
Michele Mauri
Salvatore Zingale

Teaching Assistants

Angeles Briones
Tommaso Elli
Michele Invernizzi
Azzurra Pini